Best. Motto. Ever.

Best. Motto. Ever.
You'll hear me repeat it until my dying day: "BARE FEET = HAPPY LIFE!" ...It's THAT simple!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Tales of the Ticklish: 'Tickled By Strangers?' One More Time!

     I was just telling this hilarious story of me getting my feet tickled at my local sports bar (back when it was still open!), and that story gets a TON of laughs. Then I realized that I never shared this one in a, "Tales of the Ticklish", blogpost! So here we go: 
     I have three, true-life, "Feet Tickled by a Stranger", events, and this was no. 3, the funniest one! The other two were cute,"passerby", tickle moments, which can be found in an earlier post on here (Search through the earlier posts for the original, "Tickled By Strangers", entry, and please enjoy the laughs!)  This third, funniest, one was about 15+ yrs. ago, on the Sat. before Halloween, and I was at my local sports bar's annual Halloween party, dressed as The Rock! Yes, the ROCK, wearing a shiny, LOUD, "Hollywood" shirt, sunglasses, black slacks..(but of course, flip-flops..that's key to this story), carrying around an imitation wrestling belt, all night long! Most of the costumed people, and all of my friends, were gone by about 2 AM, I was very drunk (the bar was open 'til 4, and I planned on stumbling home, around the corner, when they closed), and in walks a bachelorette party, like 8-9 girls, from whatever bars that they were at, all VERY drunk, as intox as I was. So, within a few minutes, with the bar being almost empty except for us, I am sitting there talking to them on the couches by the dancefloor, and the tipsy bachelorette was barefoot (she had left her shoes in the limo), and I light-heartedly commented, "Yes! You're a barefooter like me!" She looked and down and noticed my feet, in flip-flops, said, "Oh my God, look at YOUR  cute feet! Let me see those!", motioning for me to put my feet up on her lap. (Now, this was looooong before I was getting my toes painted, "rockstar colors", at the pedi place, but I've always had really great feet, so I guess she actually had noticed! LOL). No sooner do I plop my feet up on her lap, then she quickly slips off both of my flip-flops, and flings them to the other side of the dancefloor, like 15 feet away (over by the wall mirrors, if you were able to see the bar's layout), smiles a mischievous smile, and with a drunken, playful slur, says, "I have to see something..", and with that, starts slowly raking her nails across the bottoms of my bare feet! LOL! (Uh, yes, I was easily as surprised as you are, reading that! It's almost 230-3AM and someone is tickling my feet, at the bar!) I started cracking up, ticklish-laughing, and her friend (Maid of Honor?) said, "Oh!! I HAVE to get in on this!", and takes one of my exposed feet from the bride's lap, and joins in! LoL! What the hell?! Two complete stranger chicks, who I met maybe 20-30 minutes earlier, each one of them now holding one of my legs with an arm hooked around each ankle, were absolutely loving tickling my feet & making me laugh! LOL! Don't ask me! I don't know how these things happen, I think maybe they were just having fun and being flirty, but we were all very drunk, and it WAS truly hilarious! It was maybe 30-45 seconds of them tickling my bare feet, but I was truly laughing out loud, and their friends DID have their cameras out (hah, not cameraphones! Those weren't really a thing yet, in the late 90's!), clicking away! So somewhere, in someone's bachelorette photo album, is a picture of that bachelorette (in a black cocktail dress & a tiara, I do remember), and her friend, with my bare feet up on their laps, tickling my feet, as my crew-cut head is thrown back, laughing! Hah, I would love that pic now, to post it on here! So many years later, I wonder if she & her friends ever look through those photos, and ask each other, "Look! Do you remember that night, when we tickled that big guy's feet at the bachelorette party?!!" Lmao!! This kinda' stuff ONLY happens to me! But I'm not complaining at all, I love these fun bare feet incidents!! More funny stories to tell! ..And, "Tickling bare feet" is ALWAYS a contagiously funny story, because it's fun picturing it happening to you! LoL! I hope you all laughed reading this! Have a great weekend, all of my friends in Barefoot Nation!


TOMS "#Without Shoes" Charity Campaign, 2016's Best Entries

     It's sure been one busy year since I last posted, with the arrival of new babies into the family, and a ton of house projects that took away my blogging time. But, since my last post, a year ago, dealt with TOMS Shoe Co.'s 2015, "One Day Without Shoes", charity drive (to provide extremely poor children with free shoes), it's only fitting that my return to the happiness of, "bare feet blogging", should deal with the same! So, here's the best of what I saw as entries into TOMS' 2016 campaign... Including my own superb bare feet! :)

I LOVE this! My favorite pic from this year's crop, as a middle school teacher posted, "Had my kids all take off their shoes (and socks), lay on the carpet, and line up with their feet like this, for our TOMS "Without Shoes" photo entry.. However, because they were all facing the bottoms of each other's bare feet, some of my students just couldn't resist tickling their classmates' feet, leading to MANY huge giggles, and one of the most fun school days this year! Laughter wins again!" 

Me! Bare feet, happy life.. even happier when it's for a good cause! :)

Instagrammer's perfect bare feet, and perfect use of natural lighting! 

My photography friend, Saleep, snapping a pic of her lil' daughter's adorable bare feet at the beach! Tickle tickle!

Instagrammer taking her awesome, bare feet, "Without Shoes", entry outdoors, and getting back to nature! :)

Saturday, May 9, 2015

TOM's Shoes: Go Barefoot, and DO. ONE. GOOD. DEED!

 
DO IT!
 
     Gonna be taking a barefoot blogging hiatus for a bit, as a major house redo project gets going, now that the NY weather is finally nice enough for outdoor house/yard work. It's also nice enough for bare feet, so let's leave you all with the current TOM's Shoe Co. charity activity, so you ALL can participate, and do good deeds with your happy bare feet!
MY stellar bare feetsies
are in the game!
     Every year, TOM's sponsors their, "One Day Without Shoes", campaign, in order to raise awareness about poor children around the world who can't even afford one pair of shoes. Normally, this entails people spending the day barefoot, if their lives/jobs permit it, and discussions of how to help those needy, impoverished kids. Well, TOM's took it a step further this year, and, for every photo of bare feet tagged with #withoutshoes, on Instagram (one entry per Instagram account), TOM's will donate a free pair of TOM's to a needy, underprivileged child! THAT is the definition of "putting you money where your mouth is (or, where your bare feet are)"! So, if you're on Instagram, get those shoes off, show those bare feet, and HELP THE POOR! It doesn't get any easier than this! Peace out, barefooters.. Keep those shoes out of sight, stay happy, and I love you all!
Instagrammer moniksphotos' wonderful entry!



Saturday, March 14, 2015

Craving Bare Feet Weather, and Pining for Summer 2015!

   
Bare feet, "hangin' around" on a boat!
I love how playful this is!
     
     If you live in the northeast, or northern central, USA, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This winter has been particularly brutal, and, after an especially crappy February (in which Boston almost set a new all-time record for snowfall), we are now, in mid-March, FINALLY starting to see some noticeable melting of the copious inches of ice, and dirty (no longer fluffy & pretty), snow! YES! You know what that means, right?! Bare feet weather & happy, sunny days aren't too far off now! Chin up, my, "shoes are overrated", friends! And don't forget to go get your pedis, if you need to! Hah, waaaaaaay too many are still suffering from "winter feet", so go visit your local pedi salon, and give 'em some love! 

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Bare Feet as Art, and Kicking Off 2015!

Metaphor for a love of the simple things:
BARE FEET,  FEET UP,
RELAXATION, COFFEE!  :)
     Hello, Barefoot Nation! Hope everyone's New Year's Eve celebrations were fun and that, any resolutions that you made for 2015 end up being successful for you! ..And, of course, as always, keep flying that, "shoes are SO overrated", flag as much as you possibly can! Here's the latest in fantastic, "Bare feet as art", that I've come across on Instagram, or from other online sources... None of these are my photos, but, like most eye-catching pics, they are definitely worth sharing with the world..

Perfection in bare feet, with some of the nicest, cutest
feet that I've ever come across, in a gorgeous
clover setting for eye-popping contrast!

"Waiting for Laughter".. I love tickling bare feet,
and this is a beautiful, artistic capture
of that simple life pleasure that I love so much!

It's winter now.. So, hey, let's remind
 YOU of summer happiness!
Or your winter vacations to somewhere
warmer! :)


Saturday, December 27, 2014

Christmas Toes 2015! ..And Language Barriers Do Suck!

CHRISTMAS CANDY CANE TOES
FOR 2014!
     Sooooo, I went to the pedicure place, during the day on Christmas Eve, to finally get 2015's Christmas toes done, not thinking that the whole affair could've ended up being used for a Rosetta Stone language CD commercial! But, sure enough, the Chinese nail girl could not understand that I wanted my entire toenail to look like a candy cane, and NOT just paint a buncha' little candy canes on my toes, like they did two years ago! Even showing her a photo of a candy cane, on my phone, didn't help (in fact, that probably made it worse!), as she just could not grasp the concept that I was trying to explain. Thankfully, Sophie, the owner, was able to bridge the language gap, and finally get the point across! So, without further ado, I present my amazing Christmas toes for 2015! And I know they're amazing, because the REALLY cute chick paying for her pedi at the same time that I was paying for mine (and getting a few gift certificates also), looked down at my feet (as we were standing next to each other at the counter), and exclaimed, "Oh my God! Those are about the best toes I've ever seen! Can I please take a picture?!"..Hah, I never, ever deny that request! The more people taking photos of my bare feet & rockstar toes, the more I end up smiling at the silliness! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and is ready for an even happier New Year! Barefoot Nation loves you all!

I LOVE this!
..And it really amuses me to think of three really ticklish volunteers
laying there, trying to stay still (and not twitch!),
but cracking up laughing,  as airbrushes & paintbrushes
 tickle the bottoms of their bare feet, creating this amazing winter scene!
 Ticklish feet as art! Who knew?!! :)